Creating a Fitness-Friendly Environment: Aligning Your Surroundings with Your Goals
Most mornings when I get up, I dress myself in workout clothes.
Granted, that’s both the luxury in working in the fitness industry and in working for myself.
But I do it for another reason.
My dogs are a big part of my environment - sometimes I delay myself to stop and snuggle and pet them, but I believe it makes me a better human, so there’s that…
It’s one of my hacks for getting my workouts in. Because whether we think about it or not, what we are wearing and what is on our person is a part of our environment that can heavily influence our behaviors. I don’t find leggings exceptionally comfortable, but I won’t let myself change until I’ve gotten my workout in.
Closely looking at environment is one of the places I like to start with clients in the journey of “I know what I need to be doing, I’m just not doing it.”
Here are some of the environmental factors to consider:
Body
What are you wearing? If one of your goals is to walk every day at lunch, are you wearing shoes that will allow you to do that? Are you wearing a fitness tracker or fitness watch? Is it set to remind you to stand up from your desk and do a lap around the office?
As a note, for most of us, our phone could be considered part of our body because we have it in hand or on our person most of the time.
Reach
The next part of the environment is what is within reach?
One of my favorite stories for untangling a habit is the 20 second rule from researcher Shawn Achor. He wanted to untangle the habit of coming home from work and immediately turning on the television after sitting on his couch. He discovered that if he moved the remote far enough away that it would take him at least 20 seconds to retrieve it, he wouldn’t turn the t.v. on.
What is within reach for you right now?
Several of my clients leave some of their exercise equipment out because it’s a visual reminder about their goals, and makes it easier to just grab and do a couple of sets.
Much to Sheila’s chagrin, I like to leave whatever book I’m reading on a small table in our dining room. It drives her crazy, but because the book is already sitting on the table, when I sit down with my morning coffee, the book is right there, which helps me stay on task with my morning reading (which I acknowledge for those of you with children is a luxury…)
Room
During the pandemic, one of the most common struggles from clients trying to work out at home was the distraction of dust bunnies or piles of laundry. They would start working out and then get so overwhelmed by all the tasks calling to them that they would bag their workout.
How is your room set up right now? Is it cluttered? Organized? Filled with dog hair (or is that just my house…).
What kind of vibe does the room have?
How might it influence you and your goals?
If you struggle with sleeping, you might want to give a quick audit of the room where you sleep. Are there lots of small blue lights from charging electronics when you turn the light off? Is there laundry piled all around the bedroom? Are the shades broken?
No detail is too small, and if it bothers you now, in the middle of the day when you’re looking at your room, it will bother you later.
The Entire Place
Where are you right now?
Not only does every place contain different things and people within it, but each place also has a different cultural environment, with rules and norms that might influence your behavior.
This is the final layer of our environment we can access fairly easily, or without a lot of effort. And, it’s an environment that, to some degree, we usually still have a fair bit of control over.
I go back and forth between working out at home and working out at the gym. For most of this year I’ve been working out at the gym, in large part because I want to be in a place where other people are getting after it, and I want to listen to loud music, not necessarily through my headphones. When I’m at home working out, the dogs are constantly getting in my space (adorable but not practical), the music has to be low because Sheila is working from home, and it’s just me.
Our needs will change in terms of what we may need from a certain place, but it’s important to tune into those needs to have a sense of what factors will help us build and stick to our routine.